Does anyone know of any online resources that might show a typical toon exagerrated crying sequence? I've spend several hours with a hand mirror making faces and trying to draw the basic frames in Flash but the results weren't very good. I thought if I could see a few frames I'd get it. I have the "Animators Survival Guide" but couldn't find a sequence -wish he had a crying breakdown like he does for the walk cycles. :)
Alternately if anyone has done any pencil tests showing this, and wouldn't mind posting a few frames that could do it as well. Just need to see it to get it and staring at my own mug is starting to hurt the eyes. ;)
Do you have a DVD player? Pick a favorite crying sequence from an animated film and step through it frame-by-frame. You'll get a better idea of what goes into it by deconstructing the actual sequence.
What kind of crying?
Motivation?
If you have a webcam it can be a good friend in a time like this. Turn it on and act.
Thanks for the suggestion. Have to see if I have something with that big melodramatic crying -you know fountains of tears shooting out.
Here is what I have so far. If anyone can critique. I added the fla file in case anyone has a little extra time and wants to red line any improvements.
http://www.stormvisions.com/bc/MarcusCry.swf
http://www.stormvisions.com/bc/MarcusCry.fla
Basically he goes from open mouthed surprise, then he crys, then some suddenly stops as an idea forms.
Many thanks.
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I think you've done well, the only suggestion I would make is when you cry your chin kind of comes up, I know it does when I cry. Not that I cry that often.... Your chin almost comes up into the bottom of your mouth if you know what I mean. You know when that bottom lip meets the top one. Your chin is almost non existent. And it quivers.
Try making that chin in the crying scene a little concave and quivery.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Instead of using the scaling tool during your cry cycle, try drawing a cycle of three or four different head- and mouth-shapes and cycle those. Go from a large, over-wide open mouth to what you have now. When you cycle it, go from the current mouth to the super-open one, with inbetweens going back to the current mouth. Remember, it's all about exaggeration. What you've got isn't bad - you just need to push it further.
Thank you both for those useful suggestions. Will try and post again.
My blog at AnimationBlogSpot